Editing John Cage (section)

===1912–1931: Early years===
Cage was born September 5, 1912, at [[Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles)|Good Samaritan Hospital]] in downtown Los Angeles.<ref>Mark Swed (August 31, 2012), [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-john-cage,0,3501401.htmlstory John Cage's genius an L.A. story] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref> His father, John Milton Cage Sr. (1886–1964), was an inventor, and his mother, [[Crete Cage|Lucretia ("Crete") Harvey]] (1881–1968), worked intermittently as a journalist for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref name="Nicholls, p. 4">{{harvnb|Nicholls|2002|loc=4}}</ref> The family's roots were deeply American: in a 1976 interview, Cage mentioned that [[George Washington]] was assisted by an ancestor named John Cage in the task of surveying the [[Colony of Virginia]].<ref>Cage quoted in {{harvnb|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=1}}. For details on Cage's ancestry, see, for example, {{harvnb|Nicholls|2002|loc=4–6}}.</ref> Cage described his mother as a woman with "a sense of society" who was "never happy",<ref name="statement-web">{{cite web | url=http://www.newalbion.com/artists/cagej/autobiog.html | title=An Autobiographical Statement | publisher=Southwest Review | year=1991 | author=Cage, John | access-date=March 14, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070226123315/http://www.newalbion.com/artists/cagej/autobiog.html | archive-date=February 26, 2007 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> while his father is perhaps best characterized by his inventions: sometimes idealistic, such as a diesel-fueled [[submarine]] that gave off exhaust bubbles, the senior Cage being uninterested in an undetectable submarine;<ref name="Nicholls, p. 4"/> others revolutionary and against the scientific norms, such as the "electrostatic field theory" of the universe.{{efn|1=Cage quoted in {{harvnb|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=1–2}}. Cage mentions a working model of the universe that his father had built, and that the scientists who saw it could not explain how it worked and refused to believe it.}} John Cage Sr. taught his son that "if someone says 'can't' that shows you what to do." In 1944–45 Cage wrote two small [[character piece]]s dedicated to his parents: ''Crete'' and ''Dad''. The latter is a short lively piece that ends abruptly, while "Crete" is a slightly longer, mostly melodic contrapuntal work.<ref>Recording and notes: ''John Cage – Complete Piano Music Vol. 7: Pieces 1933–1950''. Steffen Schleiermacher (piano). MDG 613 0789-2.</ref>

Cage's first experiences with music were from private piano teachers in the [[Greater Los Angeles]] area and several relatives, particularly his aunt Phoebe Harvey James who introduced him to the piano music of the 19th century. He received first piano lessons when he was in the fourth grade at school, but although he liked music, he expressed more interest in [[sight reading]] than in developing virtuoso piano technique, and apparently was not thinking of composition.{{sfn|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=2}} During high school, one of his music teachers was [[Fannie Charles Dillon]].<ref name=LAT01/> By 1928, though, Cage was convinced that he wanted to be a writer. He graduated that year from [[Los Angeles High School]] as a [[valedictorian]],{{sfn|Nicholls|2002|loc=21}} having also in the spring given a prize-winning speech at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] proposing a day of quiet for all Americans. By being "hushed and silent," he said, "we should have the opportunity to hear what other people think," anticipating ''4′33″'' by more than thirty years.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/searching-for-silence |title=Searching for Silence: John Cage's art of noise|first=Alex|last=Ross|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|date=September 27, 2010|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=July 21, 2020}}</ref>

Cage enrolled at [[Pomona College]] in [[Claremont, California|Claremont]] as a theology major in 1928. At Pomona, he encountered the work of the artist [[Marcel Duchamp]] via Professor José Pijoan, of the writer [[James Joyce]] via Don Sample, of the philosopher [[Ananda Coomaraswamy]] and of the composer [[Henry Cowell]].<ref name=LAT01/> In 1930 he dropped out of Pomona, having come to believe that "college was of no use to a writer"<ref name="Kostelanetz, p. 4">{{harvnb|Kostelanetz|2003|loc=4}}</ref> after an incident described in his 1991 autobiographical statement:

{{blockquote|I was shocked at college to see one hundred of my classmates in the library all reading copies of the same book. Instead of doing as they did, I went into the stacks and read the first book written by an author whose name began with Z. I received the highest grade in the class. That convinced me that the institution was not being run correctly. I left.<ref name="statement-web" />}}

Cage persuaded his parents that a trip to Europe would be more beneficial to a future writer than college studies.{{sfn|Nicholls|2002|loc=8}} He subsequently [[hitchhiked]] to [[Galveston]] and sailed to [[Le Havre]], where he took a train to Paris.{{sfn|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=79}} Cage stayed in Europe for some 18 months, trying his hand at various forms of art. First, he studied [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] and [[Greek architecture]], but decided he was not interested enough in architecture to dedicate his life to it.<ref name="Kostelanetz, p. 4"/> He then took up painting, poetry and music. It was in Europe that, encouraged by his teacher [[Lazare Lévy]],<ref>John Cage, National Inter-Collegiate Arts Conference, [[Vassar College]], Poughkeepsie (New York), February 28, 1948.</ref> he first heard the music of contemporary composers (such as [[Igor Stravinsky]] and [[Paul Hindemith]]) and finally got to know the music of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], which he had not experienced before.

After several months in Paris, Cage's enthusiasm for America was revived after he read [[Walt Whitman]]'s ''[[Leaves of Grass]]''—he wanted to return immediately, but his parents, with whom he regularly exchanged letters during the entire trip, persuaded him to stay in Europe for a little longer and explore the continent.{{sfn|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=80}} Cage started traveling, visiting various places in France, Germany, and Spain, as well as [[Capri]] and, most importantly, [[Majorca]], where he started composing.{{sfn|Nicholls|2002|loc=22}} His first compositions were created using dense mathematical formulas, but Cage was displeased with the results and left the finished pieces behind when he left.<ref name="Perloff, Junkerman, p. 81">{{harvnb|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=81}}</ref> Cage's association with theater also started in Europe: during a walk in [[Seville]] he witnessed, in his own words, "the multiplicity of simultaneous visual and audible events all going together in one's experience and producing enjoyment."<ref>Cage quoted in {{harvnb|Perloff|Junkerman|1994|loc=81}}.</ref>